Make vegetable prep easier by using frozen produce. It may even be healthier than fresh. Frozen vegetables are processed at their peak ripeness, a time when—as a general rule—they are most nutrient-packed. Freezing locks in all that fresh-picked nutrition and flavor. Plus, it doesn’t get any easier: washed and typically prechopped, frozen vegetables can literally go straight from freezer to pot. And they can be stored for long periods of time, ready and waiting for you.

Gretel H. Schueller is an award-winning journalist and book author. A graduate of New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program, she’s put her master's in journalism to good use. While on assignment, she has eaten backyard weeds, harvested cactus buds in an Arizona desert and made goat cheese in Greece.